ROTHENBURGER: The city can’t afford four years of council playing silly bugger

If the seven councillors at the Tuesday meeting had purposely set out to embarrass Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, and perpetuate the public split between mayor and council, they couldn’t have done it any better than they did.

What were they thinking? Post a photo of themselves sitting around a table with CAO David Trawin, all of them happily grinning, along with much gushing about what a together team they are, but with the mayor conspicuously absent?

Maybe they didn’t think it through, but there are at least three people on council with professional media experience, and others who’ve dealt with the media long enough that they should have seen what was coming.

That post virtually shouted, “Look at us, we’re a team but the mayor isn’t part of it.”

It wouldn’t take a fortune teller to know there would be a media frenzy, the mayor would be put on the hot seat, and the whole mayor-council-staff split would play out again, complete with the deputy mayor wondering out loud why RHJ was missing in action.

And yet, they must have considered it. Otherwise, why authorize Coun. Bass to say, “if asked,” that Hamer-Jackson returned from vacation the previous week but they didn’t know where he was or what he was doing?

Authorizing such a statement, without checking the facts, is shocking. Simply picking up the phone and connecting to his executive assistant would have cleared things up.

If it wasn’t a case of silly bugger, it sure felt like it. Talk about a failure to communicate.

As I confirmed in an editorial two days ago, the mayor wasn’t in town at all; after travel delays, he didn’t get back until Wednesday night.

But what about the mayor’s responsibility? He’s clarified that he gave notice he wouldn’t attend the meeting. Copies of emails between him and his executive assistant, provided to me and some of the other media, show he clearly declined the meeting, stating “I will not” attend.

The reason was he questions the CAO’s role in council’s team building. But he’s not off the hook on this. In my view he should have attended that meeting, and could have done so without compromising his principles.

Though administrative officers hate being excluded from meetings of the politicians they work for, nothing prohibits the council from meeting without staff. So the mayor could have pitched this to council and discussed it with Trawin, and still could.

He could do that, and also attend the meetings scheduled and attended by Trawin. They’re an opportunity, not a threat.

Tuesday’s meeting could have been rescheduled to a date when both RHJ and Coun. Bill Sarai were available. A photo of the entire group meeting together would have spoken as loudly as the one that was actually posted, but in a positive way.

The mayor intends to hold one-on-one meetings with councillors, and that’s a good idea. At some point, though, team building requires the team to be in the same room together.

He’s still ticked about being banned from a couple of council meetings about legal concerns, and about interjections by lawyer Denise McCabe during one particular open meeting called for the sole purpose of excluding him from a closed meeting.

He continues to talk about his feud with Bass over her remark that his idea of an out-of-town recovery centre was akin to “a concentration camp.” It was a ridiculous thing for her to say, but it happened more than a year ago.

Internet trolls say much worse things about politicians (and about columnists) every day of the week and you have to consider the source and move on. You don’t have to be friends with those you work with, just civil.

While the mayor’s concerns about the cost of bringing in a facilitator for meetings show his attention to the purse strings, at this point the mayor, council and Trawin need a referee with a loud whistle. Barring that, a good facilitator, or a mediator, might be a decent investment, one that taxpayers wouldn’t object to.

“I’ve built teams my whole life,” RHJ told me. “Just because we all get elected doesn’t mean we’re gonna think the same.”

He’s certainly right about that, so, council, let him build this team. And, Mr. Mayor, set aside the hurt feelings and join the conversation with councillors. It wouldn’t hurt to connect more directly with them on issues like this one, either.

This council is in crisis; the mayor is the crisis manager. The people of Kamloops are rooting for the people they elected, but they can’t wait four years for them to sort things out.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: The city can’t afford four years of council playing silly bugger

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